How much did your wedding cost?

[WomanEmpire]

Average wedding is around the £27k mark in the U.K. I can't think of a wedding I've attended or known of that could of cost this much? no judgement if people do pay this amount, but it seems pretty crazy! I can't believe that it is the average, unless most are paying £5k and the £1,000,000 do's are throwing off the averages?!

How much did your weddings cost?

We're on 73p a day and our 1999 £5k wedding would now cost £6058.24

Llondbol the two main ways to get a wedding cheap are:

1. Get other people to pay.
2. Don't have many guests.

1. can be calling in favours as you are doing, or other less accepted methods such as getting people to pay for their own meal (with or without notice), getting people to stay at the venue at inflated prices, getting people to bring food/drink, asking for cash gifts which you then use to pay off the wedding debt.

Some people love a pot luck "do" and are happy to bring a bottle. Some people are offended by that and say you should only invite as many as you can afford to pay for.

Someone I know had her wedding catered by the local college: the H&C students did the whole thing as a project from the earliest planning stages for their portfolios or whatever they're called. Came out barely above cost. This counts as "getting other people to pay" as the students weren't getting paid for their labour.

It sounds as though 2. isn't an option for you. In that case, step away from Pinterest before you get tricked into "saving £500" by hand-crafting £500 of materials into something you wouldn't have wasted £1000 on.

We tried to save money by doing our own stationary: invites, menus, everything. They looked beautiful but when I totted up cost was the same as buying nice stuff, took loads of our time, but was fun 😀

12k, 15k including honeymoon.

Really useful thread, I’m now in the early stages of wedding planning. Smallish budget, but I’m hopeful should be enough to get what we want. Our problem is numbers, we both have big families so we’re about at 40 guests before we even start to think about friends!

At the time about 300 quid, which was a veritable fortune. Saved up for it for a long time.

Including everything about £50k of which Rings and honeymoon were about £20k

£10k in 2008. We had it where we wanted to have it at a nice country hotel, but only had 30 people in total. I still regret not inviting extended family. Got my dress online, did it on a week day, and had a weekend honeymoon to Rome. So we scrimped a lot and mainly I feel guilty when I think about it. Should have had a big one somewhere cheap or gone away. My friend's wedding was my favourite - registry office - big family lunch, then they went away that night on a honeymoon of a lifetime. Perfect.

I'm amazed at the cost of some of the weddings on here! If that's your choice, fair enough, your money, but £30k, £40k even £50k! Must be full on fancy!!

I'm amazed at the cost of some of the weddings on here! If that's your choice, fair enough, your money, but £30k, £40k even £50k! Must be full on fancy!!

You must have missed my post 🤣

I agree with some other posts here. I married OH in 2005 and we didn't have a photographer, cars, or even The Dress! We had a disco in a pub and no speeches. We didn't even insist on people coming in "their best" but to come anyway. People still say to us it was one of the best weddings they had ever attended, even now. We even kept the kids entertained with toys and books if they got bored.

My friend's wedding at a country club cost her parents an absolute bomb, yet It was quite dull. The speeches went on for an hour, the photos ditto. My daughter who was about four at the time was bored but because of the formal setting we couldn't bring out her favourite noisy toys! The food was too posh for our pie and mash tastebuds (my dd said loudly, why are they giving us melon at the beginning? Melon is for pudding Mummy!!) and the evening entertainment was a singer that couldn't sing. I mean, properly tuneless. She sat on a chair and read the lyrics from a book. By nine pm, we were done.

My father in law married his second wife at Southwark register office and they had a party at their council house. I think they paid about £400 all in. That was the second best wedding I'd ever been to .

Nothing wrong with spending money if you have it to spare. It’s when you go in debt to fund things like this that makes it a bit silly.

about £10k plus honeymoon (I think I never actually added it up!). 2010.

I got married last year and it cost about 5k. We got married in Mayfair and had an afternoon tea reception for 20 Guests at the Chesterfield Mayfair Hotel. We had the night do at a pub in Camberwell though that cost us a whole £25 to hire

About 18k in 2013 but not including honeymoon. We had a family holiday a few months later for about £800

£2000 including flights, accommodation, drinks, outfits, food and the rest of the fun we had (weekend in Vegas from the UK, married in a pretty outdoor gazebo attached to a standard tacky chapel).

Loved every second.

We're looking at 14k all in but most of that is the venue and all the little things that i forgot to budget for like flowers and cake and photographer as soon as people hear the word 'wedding' they double their price.
And we're not having that much of a flashy do... 2nd hand dress, hog roast, basic flowers etc

We're getting married next month. So far, we've totted it up to £700. That includes all the register office fees, my ring, clothes and the £250 my mum is giving us for the after-wedding food at Wetherspoon's. Dead classy, us

Ours was £32,000 in 2010. We paid everything outright, though, and wouldn't have spent so much if we'd not had the money ready. I have a couple of friends whose debts from the wedding have outlasted the marriage and it must be galling.

The absolute best wedding we've ever been to was one at a registry office in central london with a big party in a local pub. It was fun, different and totally suited the couple.

2007, around £30K.

And yes we divorced after 6 years. If that helps.

I got married in 2000 and it cost about £4500 max. It was a beautiful country hotel with lovely food . I couldn't imagine spending tens of thousands on a wedding .. each to their own but taking that much money from parents seems wrong and if I paid for it myself I rather buy a flat .